One reason people are fans of professional sports is that watching grown men play games serves as a distraction from how mind-numbingly frustrating real life can be. There is little in real life that serves as Novocaine to the brain quite like contemporary American politics.

Almost as frustrating as not being able to watch NHL hockey is the sickening similarity between the battle over a new collective bargaining agreement and the grapple for control of Washington. As sports and politics become more intertwined, the bitter taste only grows.

Some of this is natural, as money is power in this society, and money is the main source of discord between hockey’s owners and players. What is troubling is the way that the quotes on the sports page keep trending toward echoing the front page. When Red Wings vice president Jim Devellano made his infamous comments about the owners viewing the players as “cattle,” it was evocative not only of Mitt Romney’s caught-on-tape “47 percent” gaffe, but of the Barack Obama “you didn’t build that” sound bite. Much like the president, Devellano was hurt by a lack of context—he included team employees, specifically himself, among the “cattle,” but all anyone heard was a management figure mooing at labor.

The similarities extend from controversial comments to the tone of the negotiators. In this regard, toss aside the presidential campaigns for a moment and think back to last year’s debt ceiling crisis, when the government nearly shut down because the parties could not agree on how to do something they’d done dozens of times.

Here’s Obama last July: “While many in my own party aren’t happy with the painful cuts (of the White House proposal), enough will be willing to accept them if the burden is fairly shared. … The only reason this balanced approach isn’t on its way to becoming law right now is because a significant number of Republicans in Congress are insisting on a cuts-only approach.”

And here’s Speaker of the House John Boehner, that same day: “I made a sincere effort to work with the president to identify a path forward that would implement the principles of cut, cap, and balance in a manner that could secure bipartisan support and be signed into law. I gave it my all. … The sad truth is that the president wanted a blank check six months ago, and he wants a blank check today. That is just not going to happen.”

Those quotes could have come from Donald Fehr and Gary Bettman last month, on the day that the NHLPA executive director and NHL commissioner gave grim press conferences in New York that ushered hockey into its latest work stoppage.

The difference is that while the politicians were forced to make a deal by pressure from constituents livid at the possibility of losing government services, on the eve of an election year, the only constituencies that Fehr and Bettman have to worry about are the players and owners. Fans who lose their hockey have little recourse beyond not purchasing tickets once hockey returns. The NHL’s belief is clearly that such a calamity will not befall the league, as fans love the game too much to stay away. They’re probably right.

So, fans head to social media, largely venting their frustrations at Bettman, who has deleted his Twitter account, not that he had used it much before. Twitter has become the realm of the players, with a great deal more support for their cause than for that of the owners (among fans picking sides, anyway). Again, there is a mirror to politics here, as Obama has 20 times more Twitter followers than Romney, and Twitter’s youthful demographics tend to be more favorable to the left.

And yes, even in hockey labor negotiations, there is a clear divide between right and left, with Ayn Rand acolytes such as vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan and Philadelphia Flyers owner Ed Snider going up against a former community organizer in Obama and a 35-year union lawyer in Fehr. It’s hardly any wonder that the rhetoric is so similar.

Fans have representation in the form of government, but elected officials are just as stymied by hockey’s negotiations. While the NHL and NHLPA can’t seem to agree on anything, New Jersey’s two Democratic senators, Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez, sent a letter to the NHL and NHLPA on Monday, urging them to settle their differences. On Tuesday, the Republican governor of the Garden State, Chris Christie, said that he, too, would like to see the lockout end.

Of course, it is easy for politicians to say popular things when they are free from the responsibility of action, but as the lockout drags on, the absence of hockey as a societal diversion becomes more of a real-world problem. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has reported that last season, regular-season Penguins games were worth, on average, $2.1 million to the local economy. Jobs already have been lost in this lockout, and more are at stake.

Even if the NHL and NHLPA do manage to settle their differences, the ties between sports and politics only grow stronger. One daily must-stop destination online for anyone interested in the presidency is The New York Times’ FiveThirtyEight blog, in which Nate Silver breaks down polling statistics to predict the election the way that he once formulated the PECOTA projection system for Baseball Prospectus, whose sister publication, Hockey Prospectus, foretells hockey players’ performances with the VUKOTA system.

Silver’s post on Monday, headlined “Romney Down a Touchdown?”, attempted to compare the former Massachusetts governor’s chances to an NFL team trailing in the fourth quarter. It was a well-researched, easily-digestible piece, which is great for those who do not ordinarily follow politics, but a further intermingling of politics and sports all the same. The games can still provide an escape, but they have to be played.